Different class

Two years ago, I put together a proposal for a book about the coming sea change in British politics. It was going to document the resurgence of a political clique that, until recently, had been written off as a busted flush. How had David Cameron, the grandson of a baronet and a member of the Bullingdon Club, managed to overcome the anti-toff prejudice that had put paid to Douglas Hurd’s leadership bid 18 years earlier? The idea was for publication to coincide with the Conservatives thunderous election victory of 2010. I was going to call it The Return of the Eton Mob.

I never got around to writing it, which is probably just as well. This analysis now seems completely wrong-headed — and not only because the Tories failed to win a majority. The resemblance between David Cameron and the 18 other Old Etonians who occupied No. 10 Downing Street is purely superficial.